Maine Antique Digest, April 2017

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6-B Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
- SHOW -
6-B
New York City
NYC Big Flea
by Julie Schlenger Adell
Faced with having to change her show’s venue on very
short notice, manager Dee Dee Sides scrambled and was
able to pull off her NYC Big Flea January 19-21 in the
Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center on West 34th
Street.
Sides received notice from her original venue, the 69th
Regiment Armory, on Lexington Avenue and 26th Street, that
it would not be able to accommodate her event because of the
presence of lead in the building, she said. The ammunition
fired in the armory over decades was the cause, apparently.
Changing the location as well as tweaking the dates and times
was what she was faced with. “We did have to downsize due
to the space constraint [at the new venue] so we were forced to
scale back the show a bit,” Sides wrote in an e-mail a week after
the event. The show went on with a little over 70 dealers, about
a third less than had been
expected—and opened on a
Thursday afternoon rather
than a Friday and closed on
Saturday evening instead of
Sunday.
Many dealers who followed
Sides to 34th Street gave her
kudos for pulling it off. “I
give her credit for having it and not canceling it,” remarked
Kingston, New York, dealer Judy Milne.
The venue was atypical for a flea market in New York City.
The ballroom, housed in the Manhattan Center between 8th
and 9th Avenues, is a dark and somewhat rundown space, and
dealers’ booths were haphazardly arranged up and down and
around circuitous and narrow aisles.
For some hunters, however, that is part of the charm and
appeal while on the prowl for treasures.
Sides stages the Big Flea as an “event” rather than an
antiques show. She is constantly tweaking and thinking about
how to improve and expand this event.
Her family runs D’Amore Promotions, which puts on Big
Flea events in different locations in Virginia with several
hundred exhibitors. Sides last brought the Big Flea to New
York City in January 2016, at Pier 90, during a snowy weekend
when vehicles were banned from the city streets. Getting to the
Pier on the far west side of the island was a challenge for most.
The show went on, and Sides dealt with the uncontrollable
scenario with spunk and drive.
This year’s Big Flea, like other shows taking place in
New York City during Americana Week, was up against the
presidential inauguration and the women’s march. For some,
going to the shows was a distraction. Others stayed home to
watch the political events unfold.
This year’s Big Flea was filled with jewelry of all types, and
vintage clothing booths were ubiquitous, while folk art dealers
numbered a dozen. There was lots of silver on the floor.
A vintage clothing dealer who sells to movie and television
production companies said, “I’m just a rag girl but a very, very
busy one. I have everything from Park Avenue to the park
bench.” Janet Maluk of The Store with No Walls, Hackensack,
New Jersey, said she had sold clothing to HBO’s productions of
Boardwalk Empire and Vinyl and keeps a warehouse next door
to her shop that stylists and fashion designers visit regularly.
Thomas Clark of Francestown, New Hampshire, rang up
several sales, including a marine painting, a weathervane
in the shape of a ram, a carved clown, a WPA sign, a grave
marker, and a jade pin.
Judy Milne said, “Considering the change in venue two
weeks before, the attendance wasn’t bad. I had a decent
show, and I think the other folk art dealers pulled it out OK.”
However, “There are so few shows left,” she bemoaned, “and
no venues.”
Frank Gaglio exhibited at the Big Flea at the last minute. “I
filled in for someone who had canceled. I commend Dee Dee
for the exemplary job she did,” said the Barn Star Productions
owner and antiques dealer. “The setup and breakdown went
smoothly, there was lots of security, and I made substantial
sales each day.” Gaglio, of Rhinebeck, New York, sold
two tables, a collection of automaton bottle stoppers from
Germany, a Shaker cherry cloak hanger, painted and carved
figures of Punch and Judy, and a pair of Skookum dolls. “I’m
pleased and was thrilled to be there,” he said.
“All in all we were very pleased with the quality and turnout
of the show,” commented Sides.
The pictures and captions illustrate the event. Further
information can be found at ).
Dealers who
followed Sides to
34th Street gave
her kudos for
pulling it off.
This double-sided trade sign from an
apple farm, found in the Catskill region
of New York, was priced at $2400 by
Francis Crespo Antiques, Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. The folk art painting
below it, found in Pennsylvania,
depicting a pig pulling a sleigh, 1950s,
was tagged $395. The chalkware bank
of a man with a moustache in original
painted surface was also $395.
Francis Crespo’s nephew, Camilo, age seven, helped his uncle on
Saturday and sold a duck decoy. He posed for M.A.D. in front of his
favorite item in the booth, the apple farm trade sign.
These pieces of Pisgah Forest Pottery,
North Carolina, were available from
Barbara Gerr Antiques, Galloway
Township, New Jersey. The one with
a wagon scene and the one with
riders on a horse with a dog were
priced at $495 each. The center one
with a Native American on horseback
hunting a buffalo, with crystalline
glaze, was $1995.
This wood shovel with a
painting of a steamer ship
was tagged $750 by Frank
Gaglio Antiques, Rhinebeck,
New York. Gaglio sold items
each day and said he was
“pleased” with the results.